It's important to remember that there are actual differences between Democrats and Republicans. It clearly has not hurt the GOP to not just be the more racist and misogynist party, but to become the blatantly racist and misogynist party.

They don't care much or at all about sexual harassment, except if it hurts them at the polls. For Democrats it's one of our strong values to work toward equality and support those who have been victims of assault and harassment. And we think those who have done the assaulting and harassing should not be left in positions of power. Republicans don't care as much about those things, and it will hurt them much less than it would hurt us to do nothing about it.

Certainly we can hope that people will be turned off by their actions, but for people who hold a value of being a strong leader above a value of working toward equality, these accusations don't lead to the same results.

I'm with everyone here. If I have to hear one more usage of the Whataboutism defense, I may just lunge through screens and start choking the shit out of people. To quote a lesson my mom has beat into my head since preschool: Two Wrongs Don't Make A Write!

I'm wondering which would better drive the point home: tattooing it onto idiots in blood-red letters (said tattoo will be done the Yakuza way where shards of bamboo are used to drive the ink beneath the skin) or using a board to literally beat the message into their heads via Morse Code.

I'm with everyone here. If I have to hear one more usage of the Whataboutism defense, I may just lunge through screens and start choking the shit out of people. To quote a lesson my mom has beat into my head since preschool: Two Wrongs Don't Make A Write!

You mean right, correct? Anyhow the biggest problem about the "whataboutism" technique in debate is that it is very effective. Like most deflection techniques its very effective at distracting people and unless you have a moderator who can say "knock that crap out", people will be distracted by it. Its even worse since it does more than just distraction. Most of the time it goes unchallenged which just makes it used more since its working.

People are easily distracted by false equivalence - it takes actual work to separate out crap like that and by the time you do, the original point is lost.

But in general it works. Republicans use these things since it works - its their MO to call out perceived hypocrisy and be immune to their own. They are playing with a loaded deck and their supporters seem not to care about it. Democrats seem to have to play against a loaded set of dice and have to seemingly disadvantage themselves. Republicans don't care. They play unfairly in so many ways and no matter what, it works.

Minnesota has a Democratic governor so Franken's replacement should also be a Democrat, but his seat is up in 2020 and his margin of victory in 2014 was not so great that I'd count on the 2020 election going to the Democrats.

Gov. Dayton, on Wednesday, will appoint a person to fill the chair when Franken resigns. According to Minnesota state law, AIUI, that appointee will be considered a caretaker until the next general election, which will be in 2018. At that time, the caretaker, if she/he chooses, can file to remain in the seat, along with any other challengers from either party. If someone from the state Democratic party (Other than the caretaker) chooses to run for the seat, a special primary will be held before the general election. The person elected in 2018's November election will then fulfill what would have been the remainder of Franken's term, Which means that seat will then come back up for election again in 2020.

There are a lot of conflicted feelings in this state about all of this. Of all people, the former Republican Gov. Arnie Carlson has come out against Franken's resignation, saying that Franken should have had the opportunity to go through the ethics investigation, which is what Franken originally wanted as well.

Discussions amongst the Democrats (There's no way Gov. Dayton will appoint a Republican) indicates they're looking for someone who'll be more than a "caretaker." They're looking for someone who will commit to running for election in 2018, thus avoiding a potentially divisive Democratic primary. Many here think that appointee will be Lt. Gov. Tina Smith. The Lt. Gov. office in this state is largely ceremonial, and usually the Lt. Gov. isn't seen much. That's not been the case with Lt. Gov. Smith. She's been very active during her term, and is seen in public quite a bit around the state. Tellingly, since the Franken announcement, she's become nearly invisible. To further complicate matters, the Minnesota constitution was amended in 1960, to provide that if the Lt. Gov. position is vacated for any reason, the next in line for that office will be the president of the state senate. The Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, so obviously that person would be a Republican. I can guarantee you state Democrats wouldn't like that.